Something New
by Rosie eisoR
Summary: After their wedding, Kaddar and Kalasin try to learn a little bit more about each other. Written for the Secret Admirers Exchange over at Goldenlake.


For Rachy!

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><p>Kalasin was almost used to waking up in Carthak, with the room already stifling. She was almost used to automatically turning the pillow over for the cool side.<p>

She was not used to waking up with a husband in her bed.

"Good morning," Kaddar murmured, her stirring having woken him. She watched in mild fascination as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Did you sleep well?"

"We're married," she whispered, half in awe, her eyes tracking every visible inch of him above the sheet, finding it difficult to take in.

He chuckled, turning onto his side and propping himself up on his elbow. "Did that make it difficult for you to sleep?"

Yes, as it happened. Kalasin had plotted her wedding night for years, had thought about _this_ wedding night for the weeks since her arrival in Carthak. When they had finally reached it, however, she had been trembling so much that Kaddar had told her that they wouldn't do anything she wasn't ready for - that there was plenty of time for 'all that'. So, instead, they had gone to sleep. Or, rather, Kaddar had slept, and she had lain awake, wondering.

Kaddar was clearly not plagued by the same concerns; he was already on his feet and padding to the door. She sat up in bed, afraid that he was leaving and it would be a good ten hours before she could have him on his own again. Her fears were allayed, however, when he reappeared with a tray of fruit and two tall glasses. "I suspected we might have been left something," he said, satisfied.

It was a little like they'd been married for years, Kalasin decided. He was treating her as though they always saw one another in such a state of undress, in such an intimate setting. Then, he snuck her an uncertain look as he handed her one of the glasses, and she realised that perhaps he might just be adept at putting on an act.

Well, she was used to putting people at their ease, wasn't she?

"Do you have much on today?" she asked politely, and could have bitten her tongue afterwards. She started every day like this; she felt as though she could have come up with something better now they were actually married.

"Only if you get tired of me," he replied, eyes serious. "Yesterday felt so much like everybody else's day - I thought we could have 'our' day today."

Kalasin drained her glass before saying, "I believe I could manage that."

He grinned at her. "Oh? You could make time in your schedule for your husband?"

Her husband. She was really Carthaki now - her first loyalties no longer to the country of her birth. She set the uncomfortable realisation to the side for the moment, and reached for a piece of melon. "I have to say, I'm relieved to find your servants leave you fruit. I did hear there was a time when you considered spiders a delicacy."

Kaddar stared at her, and then laughed. "When you are six, it seems a better option than sitting through your uncle's stuffy meals."

"Is that why you tried to take up a career in the kitchens?" she asked innocently, popping a fig into her mouth.

"You have a spy in my house," Kaddar lamented, though he must know her source was his mother. "Well, my empress. I am laid bare before you-" His choice of words made her blush, and she wasn't sure they were accidental. "-and you are yet an enigma to me. Will you share yourself?"

Kalasin took another fig before he removed the plate from between them, and she understood that he meant her to be serious now. "Alianne of Pirate's Swoop and I once tried to make ourselves dresses out of one of my mother's ballgowns. She wasn't particularly pleased when she found us taking scissors to it." He snorted, and she smiled, relaxing back against the headboard. "When I was younger, I wanted nothing more than to be exactly like Alianne's mother. I thought she was wonderful, and strong, and brave in all the ways that mattered. I thought, I could do that; I could be like that." Her voice caught slightly on the childish dream.

"Father explained to me that I was narrowing my options, that I could help so many more people if I chose a different path. He said ruling was full of sacrifices."

That made Kaddar's hand, which had been inching across the sheets towards hers, freeze. "Sacrifices?"

"Sacrifices," she repeated. "And rewards. Like not being able to pursue knighthood, but having that denial lead me here instead."

He knelt before her on the bed, one hand already entwined with hers. "I am - selfishly - glad it led you here," he said, pressing his lips to her ring.

She didn't (couldn't?) answer verbally. Instead, her response came when his lips found her own, and she discovered she didn't care about how hot the weather might be anymore.


End file.
